This fair-copy poem was enclosed in a letter (BPL Higg 73; J L 513) sent to Thomas
Wentworth Higginson in 1877 (THJ, RWF). In the header, in pencil, Thomas Wentworth
Higginson identified the poem as "The Blue Bird," based on Dickinson's
characterization in the letter. Pinholes appear in upper left corner of
manuscript, suggesting that other documents—perhaps the other poems
enclosed with the letter—were attached to this poem or, alternatively,
that the poems were attached to the letter, either by Dickinson or, more likely,
by Higginson. The left edge of the manuscript has been folded over and pasted
down; small amounts of glue or paste residue on the manuscript suggest that it may
have been kept in an album. Three other poems were enclosed with this letter: "It
sounded | as if the | streets were | running"; "She laid her | docile Crescent |
down"; and "I have no | Life but this -." For an earlier fair-copy draft of the
poem beginning "After all | Birds have | been investigated," see A 94-1 / 2 (about 1875 [RWF]; about 1877 [THJ]); for
a rough-copy draft of the second stanza beginning "First at the | March," see A 127 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]); for a fair-copy draft
of the last lines of the poem beginning "Last to | adhere | When Summers | swerve
away -," see A 298 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]); and,
for an identical fair-copy of the poem's final lines beginning "Last to | adhere |
When Summers | swerve away -" and sent to Samuel Bowles, see A 711 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]). For a related
fragment, see A 255 (about 1877 [THJ, RWF]). In
Poems (1998), R. W. Franklin suggests that A 255 was composed
after A 298 and A 711, but before BPL Higg 35, since the fair-copy to Higginson
reflects some of the changes introduced in the previous drafts. The definitive
compositional history of the textual constellation, however, remains open to
speculation.